


the reality of forever

by grey_dawn



Series: adelina amouteru, free at last [2]
Category: The Young Elites Series - Marie Lu
Genre: Aging, Almost Plotless, Bittersweet, Constellations, F/M, Fluff, Immortality, Sibling Love, White Wolf - Freeform, is a happy ending so hard, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 02:41:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9528287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grey_dawn/pseuds/grey_dawn
Summary: adelina amouteru knows her time with magiano is limited.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is as plotless as its preceding work, but i really wanted to conclude it nicely. i think the previous work was better than this one, but i wanted adelina to have an absolute happy ending. thank you!

Every midnight, when Adelina’s feet touch the ground on more, Magiano is already there, smiling softly up at her, waiting for her to go to him. And she does, putting aside her fear for the night.

Many midnights come and go. Magiano changes in ways Adelina does not – his hair grows as silver as Adelina’s, though his is not showered in stardust; his smile etches lines on his face and his eyes, lines that once did not exist; and most of all, he grows weary so easily, unlike Adelina, his white wolf, who bounds up to him every midnight with limitless energy.

He still plays his lute, his gold-encrusted lute. He still laughs and tells Adelina about her sister, the beloved queen of the Sealands, who is known across the lands for being fair and just, something Adelina knows she never was. And Magiano still fills her with joy. Always joy, and erases the fear and fury nestled deep inside her.

Until the fear, lurking just out of her reach in the caves of her heart, strikes. Every time she sees Magiano, her heart closes up, unwilling to have to bear the pain later on.

“What’s wrong, mi Adelinetta?” Magiano asks one night, as he stops his strumming and turns to look at her.

And she sees just how different he looks. If only she could still weave illusions. She would weave one on his face, convince herself that nothing had changed, despite all the nights that flew by. But she is left staring at the wrinkled corners of his eyes, the dll silver streaks in his hair.

“You’re not the same.”

“I am always the same. I am always here, aren’t I?”

“You know what I mean,” she peers at him. “You’re older.”

Magiano’s brow creases. “So?”

“I am not.”

“I know.”

“Aren’t you afraid?”

He only laughs, and it’s a laugh Adelina never wants to stop hearing night after night.

“No, because I am here with you, Adelina. Stop worrying. I will not leave you.” He pauses. “I promise.”

So she lays her head on his chest and closes her eye – somehow, with Magiano, she always has just one eye – and wills herself to believe his words.

*

One midnight she does not see him anywhere.

She waits and waits, walking every midnight in search, but he never shows up.

She sinks down onto their field. Tears come, and again she flickers between one eye and two, scarred face and perfect face. She had forgotten about that when Magiano found her.

_He promised._

*

So many midnights have passed, Adelina no longer cares to count. But after she finds the earth again, a figure comes to her, bathed in the same shimmering silver as her, and dressed no longer in the finest silks the world has to offer, but instead in plain silver.

“I promised, didn’t I?” Magiano envelops her, who is still shaking, in his arms.

“But how?”

“Your sister, mi Adelinetta. Violetta bargained with Compasia again.”

“With what?” Adelina fears the answer. Violetta, sweet Violetta…

“Herself. She would have been made a constellation, too, with Compasia’s blessing, but she chose to pass the chance to me. Compasia had a difficult time getting my soul.”

Adelina wraps her arms tighter around Magiano. Magiano, whose hair, though dusted with silver specks, is as dark as it used to be, and whose eyes shine as bright as she remembered.

“Violetta,” she murmurs. “my puppet master, my sister.”

“She told me to tell you this – ‘tell my sister I miss her, and that every night before my time passes I will look upon you.’ She also said she loves you, Adelina. That’s why she let me come to you instead.”

“Thank you.” Adelina Amouteru whispers, the white wolf laying still, at peace at last.


End file.
